UW hoops gets 3rd commitment for 2013-'14 class

Madison – Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan and his staff have added a third commitment for UW’s 2013-’14 freshman class.

Jordan Hill, a 6-foot-3 combo guard from Pasadena, Calif., who is attending Phillips Exeter (N.H.) Academy this fall, gave UW an oral commitment on Tuesday.

The others are guards Bronson Koenig of La Crosse Aquinas and Riley Dearring of Minnetonka (Minn.) High School.

Hill plays for BTI Pump N Run, which is based in southern California, on the AAU circuit.

“I’ve always been a fan of Wisconsin because I like the blue collar programs,” Robert Icart, BTI director, said Tuesday. “I enjoy those programs because that is kind of who we are.

“We don’t get five-star prima donna kids. We get the two- and three-star kids who really work hard and are high-character kids and just get better.”

Hill, who averaged 14.5 points and 7.5 rebounds per game last season at Pasadena La Salle High School, was being recruited by Lehigh, Santa Clara, Tulane and Rice.

He was also looking at four Ivy League schools – Brown, Yale, Cornell and Dartmouth.

“I think he is a guy that tons of high-majors would offer if they would see him at Exeter,” Icart said. “I think his recruiting would have skyrocketed and schools from the East Coast would have gotten on him.

“This was a great opportunity to play at a place like Wisconsin where they do it in a classy way. They have a solid business model for how they win and how they develop their players.

“Everything from top to bottom is really first class.”

According to Icart, Hill caught the attention of Ryan last month in Chicago at the King James Summer Showcase.

Ryan was evaluating guard Bryan Albert , a 6-5 guard for the 2014 freshman class and a teammate of Hill’s. Tip time for the first game was 8 a.m.

“Bo Ryan got to the gym and Jordan was already there, laced up and out on the court at 7:15,” Icart said.
“He almost beat the janitors there. He was already taking shots, almost like an NBA guy.

“He pulled a teammate out and he was doing shots off a ball-screen. I think at that time coach Ryan was (thinking): ‘I hope this kid is Bryan Albert because he looks really good.’”

Ryan soon learned Hill was good, too.

“Jordan Hill ended up having the game of his life,” Icart said. “He is always great defensively but he was phenomenal offensively. He made every open three. He got to the basket. He had double-digit assists.”

Ryan continued to study Hill’s game and obviously liked what he saw. Hill recently took an unofficial visit to
UW and was impressed by the school and the campus.

“His floor presence is off the charts,” Icart said. “I didn’t see a kid better in leading his troops and motivating his teammates in an aggressive and positive way.”

UW associate head coach Greg Gard did as much homework as he could.

“The thing I liked about it was how they evaluated him,” Icart said. “Greg asked me a ton of questions about his character and personality. They went off that. They didn’t ask who was recruiting him.

“They do their own assessment, their own evaluation. They don’t care what the scouting services say. They believe in what they see and what they evaluate.”